This paper is the 12th report in a series of studies on the application of microexplosion to medicine and biology. Microexplosion
lithotripsy is a newly developed technique in our clinic to crush
urinary stones with small quantities of
explosives. A systematic research project has been performed since the first report of microexplosion
lithotripsy in 1977. As a result, microexplosion was successfully applied to the destruction of
bladder stones in 130 cases from 1981 to 1988. In blasting to crush rocks in industrial works, two kinds of blasting are available: external charge blasting and confined blasting. The detonation power of the latter is 10 to 50 times larger than that of the former. A detruction test using several kinds of spherical form model
calculus and
lead azide explosive was performed. The formula to calculate the suitable
explosive dose was determined experimentally as shown below. (formula; see text) Thus the theory in general industrial blasting with massive
explosives was proved to be effective also in microexplosion with small
explosives. An original electric drill system was developed to make a hole in stones for confined blasting. 60 cases, including 2 cases of giant
bladder stones over 100 g in weight, were successfully treated by confined blasting using this system without any complication. We consider that any
bladder stones, however big or however many, can be treated by microexplosion
lithotripsy with confined blasting.